Getting out of Wisconsin for a week in February always seems like cheating old man winter, but I didn’t feel bad about bright sunny days, blue skies, and temps in the 80s a couple weeks ago!

Saguaro National Park has two parts with the city of Tucson, Arizona in the middle. The Saguaro cactuses there are striking as they punctuate the arid landscape. Growing up to 70 feet tall and living over 100 years at times, these cacti are worth protecting. Their range is quite small as they only grow in the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico, southern Arizona and a small area of southeast California. Thanks to the conservation efforts of laws that prevent harming a saguaro, their numbers are not threatened.

Saguaro National Park has fine trails which take you up close to the saguaros and other desert plants like the barrel cactus. It was nice to have utter wilderness just a short distance from the amenities of Tucson.